A lot of expectations have been built-up for Joost. The company raised $45 million in funding in May 2007. And since the company started, they’ve hired a new CEO and even gone through a name change. Also while the application is still in development, so many changes have been made in the Internet video market.
The biggest problem with Joost is that users have to install an application that requires some of the highest hardware specifications. It would probably take a half-hour for the application to pull up the video menus in developing countries that recently were introduced to broadband.
There is a lot of fluff surrounding the application, which does not seem necessary for Joost’s primary purpose either. And there’s all types of flashy swirls and videos as the video is loaded, which may slow down your machine.
What is Joost’s primary purpose?
Joost’s primary purpose is simply to be able to watch TV shows, mini-movies, and even single music videos. YouTube already has music videos uploaded by Universal, NBC offers full episodes of TV shows, full TV shows on CBS, and FOX has clips of shows that I like such as Family Guy too.
If Joost doesn’t do something soon, their investors may not see much of a return from the money they plugged into the company. What can they do? Take YouTube head-on. Create a web application that complements its application so their time isn’t wasted either.
For example, Joost has music videos from P. Diddy that has crisp, clear quality on its application. Joost should offer a lower quality version of the video on its web application, then give the user a choice to pull up a higher-quality version of the video on its desktop application. That’s my suggestion as a former Joost user.
